First Snowfall Hits West Virginia

First Snowfall Hits West Virginia

Snowshoe, WV, Oct. 9, 2000--West Virginia's first measurable snowfall of the season hit Snowshoe Mountain today. A storm front began dropping snow Sunday afternoon, and by this afternoon up to two inches of snow lay over the 11,000-acre resort.

Along with the snow came temperatures in the 20's making an ideal occasion to start up the snowmaking system in preparation for the tentative winter opening date, set for Nov. 17. During the summer months, over $1 million went into improving the snowmaking system by adding new guns, piping, and expanded trail coverage including twice as much on expert terrain. All of these efforts will be put to full use in late October.

"Before crunch time comes, we wanted to test our system out to make sure everything was working properly," said Ed Galford, Snowshoe Mountain VP of mountain operations. "We don't get these types of chances to test our system out before we have to fire everything up to get open," Galford added.